A massive storm system that walloped Allen County with straight-line winds estimated as high as 85 mph on Friday evening left nearly the entire county without power and damaged homes, other structures and vehicles.
Electricity services have been restored to most homes and businesses, but about 25% of Iola remained without power as of Monday morning.
County officials have taken preliminary steps for disaster declaration and will make it official at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
The brief but devastating storm hit around 5:30 p.m. Friday, dumping 1.41 inches of rain, with most of that falling in about 20 minutes. Jason Trego, emergency management director, said he didn’t have official numbers but estimated winds between 80 and 85 mph.
The damage was severe in nearly all parts of the county, with the worst damage reported in the southern areas.
No one appeared to be seriously injured from the storm.
The loss of private property is expected to be extensive. Weekend storms hit communities across the state. Evergy reported about 190,000 homes were without power on Friday, and some areas were not expected to have power returned for several days.
“All things considered, we were pretty fortunate,” Trego said. “Allen County has resilient people and we’ll get through this together.”
However, the impact of the storm appeared to be most severe in Iola, where some residents were left without power through the weekend. Tree limbs — sometimes entire trees — ripped down power lines throughout the city.
The city’s five-member electric crew worked throughout the night to restore power to high-need areas and industries including the hospital, Walmart, Gates and Russell Stover, City Administrator Matt Rehder said.
That evening, power was restored to most areas north of U.S. 54 and east of Cottonwood Street. Most of the city had power restored by noon on Saturday, but homes in the southern areas didn’t have power until Sunday morning.
Crews were sent home at 6 p.m. Saturday for rest after working 36 hours, City Administrator Matt Rehder said. Many of them came home to find damage at their residences, as well. They returned to action on Sunday morning.
Crews from Chanute and Girard also traveled to Iola to help on Sunday and Monday.
As of Monday morning, crews were working to restore electric services to about 25% of the city, mostly east of the Meadowbrook Addition. Rehder was optimistic those areas would be up and running by Tuesday morning.
It could take weeks to repair all the damage to the electric infrastructure, Rehder said.
